News

Sahara Forest Project to be presented in New York during week of high-level diplomatic meetings

Publish date: September 24, 2009

Written by: Annicken Vargel

Translated by: Charles Digges

NEW YORK – Bellona is presenting the Sahara Forest Project, a unique system enabling sustainable production of freshwater, energy, crops and ecosystem-services from seawater, sunlight and nutrients, at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York this week.

The Clinton Global Initiative was founded in 2005 by former US President Bil Clinton with the purpose of putting actions behind words to bring about results in the battle against climate change.

This year’s anniversary celebration has brought together 1,200 heads of state and leaders from around the world to jointly work out solutions to the challenge of global climate change.

Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon, as well as Norwegian banking giant Sparebank and representatives of Norway’s respected research institute, the Fridtjof Nansen Centre.

The Sahara  Forest Project chosen for presentation
This year, 300 projects were selected to be presented at the Clinton Global Initiative anniversary and the Bellona Sahara Forest Project was among them.

The goal of the Sahara project is to increase access to fresh water and produce more biomass for clean energy to combat global warming. Bellona’s project combines salt water greenhouses, solar power and the cultivation of algae in order to produce greenery in dry areas while providing water and biomass for clean energy.  

Building of a test centre part of the project
In its Commitment to Action (download PDF to right) Bellona has committed itself to establishing a test centre for the technology. Hopefully, the test centre plans will be complete before the December international climate meeting in December.

Read more about the Sahara Forest Project here.

Press Contacts
:
USA: Magnus Borgen, Bellona Assistant Leader : +47 97 72 84 76, magnus@bellona.no
Oslo: Tone Foss Aspevoll, Bellona information service chief: +47 91 72 02 67, tone@bellona.no